Crypto Exchange Binance To Launch Its Own Blockchain

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced the development of Binance Chain, a native blockchain that will back a decentralized exchange within the Binance ecosystem.

The news comes shortly after Binance announced a $250,000 equivalent bounty to anyone who supplies information that leads to the legal arrest of the hackers involved in the attempted hacking incident on its platform on March 7.

“After extensively researching decentralized exchange frameworks and analyzing existing implementations, we believe significant improvements can be made in providing Binance users with a level of trading experience to which they are already accustomed,‎” the company said in a blog post. “Centralized and Decentralized exchanges will co-exist in the near future, complementing each other, while also having interdependence. As such, we have decided to officially launch the development of the Binance Chain.‎”

The exchange said Binance Chain will mainly focus on the transfer and trading of blockchain assets, as well as provide new possibilities for the future flow of blockchain assets. The native blockchain will focus on performance, ease-of-use, and liquidity. Binance Coin (BNB), which currently runs on the ethereum network, will be upgraded to exist on its own blockchain mainnet, becoming a native coin.

A Binance Chain-powered decentralized exchange will be launched in the coming months. Changpeng Zhao, Binance founder and CEO, said the company will steer away from the current model of tight control on the digital assets that are traded on its exchange.

“On the decentralized exchange we’ll have less control. More likely anybody can list any coin,” Zhao said. “That’s the philosophy of the decentralized exchange, it’s freedom of choice, freedom of investments. But with freedom there will be people who are scammers. That’s not something we can control.”

Zhao added that the decentralized exchange, which needs more computing power for many computers to verify and record trades, will be slower and have higher fees than the centralized platform.